Throughout this application various publications are referenced by arabic numerals within parentheses. Full citations for these publications may be found at the end of the specification immediately preceding the claims. The disclosures of these publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference into this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.
Cancer is a disorder in which a population of cells has become, in varying degrees, unresponsive to the control mechanisms that normally govern proliferation and differentiation. For many years there have been two principal strategies for chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer: a) blocking hormone-dependent tumor cell proliferation by interference with the production or peripheral action of sex hormones; and b) killing cancer cells directly by exposing them to cytotoxic substances, which injure both neoplastic and normal cell populations.
Cancer therapy is also being attempted by the induction of terminal differentiation of the neoplastic cells (1). In cell culture models differentiation has been reported by exposure of cells to a variety of stimuli, including: cyclic AMP and retinoic acid (2,3), aclarubicin and other anthracyclines (4).
Despite many advances in the field of oncology, the majority of solid tumors remain incurable in the advanced stages. Cytotoxic therapy is used in most cases, however, it often causes significant morbidity to the patient without significant clinical benefit. Less toxic and more specific agents to treat and control advanced malignancies are being explored.
There is abundant evidence that neoplastic transformation does not necessarily destroy the potential of cancer cells to differentiate (1,5,6). There are many examples of tumor cells which do not respond to the normal regulators of proliferation and appear to be blocked in the expression of their differentiation program, and yet can be induced to differentiate and cease replicating. A variety of agents, including some relatively simple polar compounds (5, 7-9), derivatives of vitamin D and retinoic acid (10-12), steroid hormones (13), growth factors (6,14), proteases (15,16), tumor promoters (17,18), and inhibitors of DNA or RNA synthesis (4, 19-24), can induce various transformed cell lines and primary human tumor explants to express more differentiated characteristics.
Early studies identified a series of polar compounds that were effective inducers of differentiation in a number of transformed cell lines (8,9). Of these, the most effective inducer was the hybrid polar/apolar compound N,N′-hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA) (9). The use of this polar/apolar compound to induce murine erythroleukemia cells (MELC) to undergo erythroid differentiation with suppression of oncogenicity has proved a useful model to study inducer-mediated differentiation of transformed cells (5, 7-9). HMBA-induced MELC terminal erythroid differentiation is a multi-step process. Upon addition of HMBA to MELC (745A-DS19) in culture, there is a latent period of 10 to 12 hours before commitment to terminal differentiation is detected. Commitment is defined as the capacity of cells to express terminal differentiation despite removal of inducer (25). Upon continued exposure to HMBA there is progressive recruitment of cells to differentiate. The present inventors have reported that MELC cell lines made resistant to relatively low levels of vincristine become markedly more sensitive to the inducing action of HMBA and can be induced to differentiate with little or no latent period (26).
HMBA is capable of inducing phenotypic changes consistent with differentiation in a broad variety of cells lines (5). The characteristics of the drug-induced effect have been most extensively studied in the murine erythroleukemia cell system (MELC) (5,25,27,28). MELC induction of differentiation is both time and concentration dependent. The minimum concentration required to demonstrate an effect in vitro in most strains is 2 to 3 mM; the minimum duration of continuous exposure generally required to induce differentiation in a substantial portion (>20%) of the population without continuing drug exposure is about 36 hours.
The primary target of action of HMBA is not known. There is evidence that protein kinase C is involved in the pathway of inducer-mediated differentiation (29). The in vitro studies provided a basis for evaluating the potential of HMBA as a cytodifferentiation agent in the treatment of human cancers (30). Several phase I clinical trials with HMBA have been completed (31-36). Clinical trials have shown that this compound can induce a therapeutic response in patients with cancer (35,36). However, these phase I clinical trials also have demonstrated that the potential efficacy of HMBA is limited, in part, by dose-related toxicity which prevents achieving optimal blood levels and by the need for intravenous administration of large quantities of the agent, over prolonged periods.
It has been reported that a number of compounds related to HMBA with polar groups separated by apolar linkages that, on a molar basis, are as active (37) or 100 times more active than HMBA (38). As a class, however, it has been found that the symmetrical dimers such as HMBA and related compounds are not the best cytodifferentiating agents.
It has unexpectedly been found that the best compounds comprise two polar end groups separated by a flexible chain of methylene groups, wherein one or both of the polar end groups is a large hydrophobic group. Preferably, the polar end groups are different and only one is a large hydrophobic group. These compounds are unexpectedly a thousand times more active than HMBA and ten times more active than HMBA related compounds.
Histone deacetylase inhibitors such as suberoylanilide hydroxamide acid (SAHA), belong to this class of agents that have the ability to induce tumor cell growth arrest, differentiation and/or apoptosis (39). These compounds are targeted towards mechanisms inherent to the ability of a neoplastic cell to become malignant, as they do not appear to have toxicity in doses effective for inhibition of tumor growth in animals (40). There are several lines of evidence that histone acetylation and deacetylation are mechanisms by which transcriptional regulation in a cell is achieved (41). These effects are thought to occur through changes in the structure of chromatin by altering the affinity of histone proteins for coiled DNA in the nucleosome. There are five types of histones that have been identified in nucleosomes (designated H1, H2A, H2B, H3 and H4). Each nucleosome contains two of each histone type within its core, except for H1, which is present singly in the outer portion of the nucleosome structure. It is believed that when the histone proteins are hypoacetylated, there is a greater affinity of the histone to the DNA phosphate backbone This affinity causes DNA to be tightly bound to the histone and renders the DNA inaccessible to transcriptional regulatory elements and machinery. The regulation of acetylated states occurs through the balance of activity between two enzyme complexes, histone acetyl transferase (HAT) and histone deacetylase (HDAC). The hypoacetylated state is thought to inhibit transcription of associated DNA. This hypoacetylated state is catalyzed by large multiprotein complexes that include HDAC enzymes. In particular, HDACs have been shown to catalyze the removal of acetyl groups from the chromatin core histones.
The inhibition of HDAC by SAHA is thought occur through direct interaction with the catalytic site of the enzyme as demonstrated by X-ray crystallography studies (42). The result of HDAC inhibition is not believed to have a generalized effect on the genome, but rather, only affects a small subset of the genome (43). Evidence provided by DNA microarrays using malignant cell lines cultured with a HDAC inhibitor shows that there are a finite (1-2%) number of genes whose products are altered. For example, cells treated in culture with HDAC inhibitors show a consistent induction of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 (44). This protein plays an important role in cell cycle arrest. HDAC inhibitors are thought to increase the rate of transcription of p21 by propagating the hyperacetylated state of histones in the region of the p21 gene, thereby making the gene accessible to transcriptional machinery. Genes whose expression is not affected by HDAC inhibitors do not display changes in the acetylation of regional associated histones (45).
It has been shown in several instances that the disruption of HAT or HDAC activity is implicated in the development of a malignant phenotype. For instance, in acute promyelocytic leukemia, the oncoprotein produced by the fusion of PML and RAR alpha appears to suppress specific gene transcription through the recruitment of HDACs (46). In this manner, the neoplastic cell is unable to complete differentiation and leads to excess proliferation of the leukemic cell line.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,369,108, 5,932,616, 5,700,811, 6,087,367 and 6,511,990, issued to some of the present inventors, disclose compounds useful for selectively inducing terminal differentiation of neoplastic cells, which compounds have two polar end groups separated by a flexible chain of methylene groups or a by a rigid phenyl group, wherein one or both of the polar end groups is a large hydrophobic group. Some of the compounds have an additional large hydrophobic group at the same end of the molecule as the first hydrophobic group which further increases differentiation activity about 100 fold in an enzymatic assay and about 50 fold in a cell differentiation assay. Methods of synthesizing the compounds used in the methods and pharmaceutical compositions of this invention are fully described the aforementioned patents, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The aforementioned patents do not disclose specific oral formulations of the HDAC inhibitors or specific dosages and dosing schedules of the recited compounds. Importantly, the aforementioned patents do not disclose oral formulations that have favorable pharmacokinetic profiles such as high bioavailability which gives rise to high blood levels of the active compounds over an extended period of time.
The class of compounds of the present invention may be useful for selectively inducing terminal differentiation of neoplastic cells and therefore aid in treatment of tumors in patients. Thus there is an urgent need to discover suitable dosages and dosing schedules of these compounds, and to develop formulations, preferably oral formulations, which give rise to steady, therapeutically effective blood levels of the active compounds over an extended period of time.